The Thing About Alliences
by bookgirl39
Summary: For PJOTKCLucian's contest. When Hope Cahill finds herself kidnapped by an annoying, very attractive, Vesper agent called Alex he tries to form an alliance with her. Will Hope and Alex follow in her parents footsteps? T Just in case
1. Not a Closet

**I fully admit that this is wrong and horrible and I'm a horrible person for doing this to you guys and I don't deserve to even have this read let alone reviewed or subscribed to. I won't make excuses because I don't have any. I won't say anything to try for your forgiveness because I don't deserve it.**

**On the bright side: I still don't own anything!**

**This is for **PJOTKCLucian**'s 2****nd**** Generation contest so, obviously, it's about the kids of the clue hunters. And if you know me, you know who the main character's parents are ;)**

**I debated the title for this for a long time so if it changes its cuz I changed my mind.**

**Hope POV**

"That was my fire!" My little brother exclaimed.

"Well you should have grabbed it! Go get the mushroom." I told him.

"But we agreed that I would get this one since you got the other one!"

"Yeah but then you threw me off the cliff and I lost it!"

"You were in my way!"

"Luke, it was your fault Hope lost hers. Not to mention you made her lose a life." my younger sister told him.

Luke sighed "Fine. But I get the next one no matter what!"

Olivia and I agreed to that. The kid needed some kind of power.

If you haven't figured out, we were playing Super Mario Bros. Yes, our parents are leading organizations that the fate of the world depends on and my younger siblings and I are trying to beat world six of Super Mario Bros. Is that wrong?

Wait... You're wondering who I am, aren't you? My name is Hope Cahill. Not to be confused with my grandmother whose name was also Hope Cahill. It happens a lot when I tell people at the stronghold; they go into all these stories about my grandmother. I never knew her but apparently she was amazing. My mom told me that she and my grandfather died in a fire.

You already know that don't you? Any good Cahill does. Do you know that the fire was set my dad's mom? Not everyone knows that part. But dad doesn't like to say that she's his mom so don't say that! Just refer to her as Isabel.

My siblings and I don't know a lot about Isabel just that she's evil. Mom and dad hate talking about her. I know she's a Vesper though and Vespers are evil so... I don't think I want to know.

"Why do you guys even play that game?" asked my older sister who was sitting with her journal in a chair in the corner of the room.

Right, my siblings. I need to explain them to you.

Grace is the oldest, seventeen, and she's kind of punk and stuff. She has amber eyes like dad and black hair. Well actually it's a lot of colors. It's naturally black but she dyes it half blonde and with red streaks. My mom said she got it from hanging out with aunt Nellie.

Then there's my younger sister Olivia. We call her Livi. She's fourteen and she looks a lot like mom. She's almost like her younger clone or something, looks and personality.

And if course we have my baby brother Luke. Okay, he's not a baby, he's ten but he's the youngest so I get to call him the baby of the family. He looks exactly like my dad but their personalities couldn't be any different. Luke is messy, loud and just plain annoying. I suppose you typical ten-year-old boy. But we love him anyway.

"You'd like it if you'd play!" Luke told Grace.

"Why would I play that? It's a waste of time." Grace rolled her eyes.

"Oh, and just listening to music all day isn't?" I argued. Seriously, that's all she seems to do.

Grace glared at me. She didn't argue back but somehow her eyes seemed to say _"I do so much more with my life."_ If she did, no one knew. Maybe that was the point.

You probably don't care about our game so I'll skip ahead. By the way, Luke never got his fire power.

_~~~~~~~Skipping to about 5pm~~~~~~~~_

Eventually Livi, Luke and I finished our game (more like gave up. The first level of world eight is impossible) and Grace disappeared to Heaven-knows-where.

Livi picked up her book and Luke went off to go break something or bother someone or whatever it is he does in his free time.

That left me alone. Mom and dad wouldn't be home for an hour... That was my opportunity to do my favorite pass time activity.

I picked the lock on my parents' bedroom door. When you have the blood of the two sneakiest Cahill branches you get good at this stuff. Training also helps. And I suppose it doesn't hurt that both my parents are branch leaders.

Their bedroom looks pretty normal at first but when you sneak around as much as I do you know it isn't normal. I know where all the secret rooms are, all the hidden escapes and all the dark passageways. Well I thought I did.

*****My favorite hidden thing in my parents' room would be the secret room under the shower in the bathroom. I have to say, it's a creative place to hide stuff. The trick is you have to look really close and you can see little numbers on the handle that controls the water temperature. If you turn it to the three then right to the nine (could it be any easier?) a keypad opens on the wall. If it's not turned fast enough you get soaked. I mean it _is_ a shower.

I would tell you the code and how I got it but I don't think I should.

I put in the code and the floor of the shower opened, revealing a door. I opened the door and walked down the steps.

It's a small room. There isn't much, just some files, a computer and a supply closet but I like to look through the files when I'm bored.

I'd checked a million times and there were no hidden places in this room. Or… I thought there weren't.

You see, as stupid as it sounds, I'd never opened the closet in that room. Call me paranoid but I thought there might be dead bodies or torture devices or something freaky in there. With my family you never know. My dad's side of the family does seem to have a liking for that kind of thing.

Now, I normally avoid that closet and I didn't plan to today.

But when you see a really big spider on the opposite side of the room and the closet is the farthest away from it you can get, plans change.

I know I shouldn't be but I'm afraid of spiders. Really it's all arachnids. I get it from mom. So when I saw one the size of my palm on the desk I ran as far as I could which was right against the closet door.

"Alex, slow down!" I heard a British voice on the other side of the closet door whisper "You walked right passed the door!"

"That isn't the right door! Natalie said the _third_ door!" an older boy — Alex? — said.

"This is the third!"

"No it's the second!"

"Mum gave you a map, but you lost it!"

"We wouldn't be able to see it in here! I can barely see my own hand!"

"Because you lost the light! You always lose things! That's why I'm in charge of the-"

"Shh!" Alex shushed the other boy. "What if someone hears you?"

"Right. Sorry."

I wasn't sure what to think. Who were these people? Why were they here? What were they talking about? One thing is for sure, this was not a closet.

**Oookay so I was going to have Hope listen to the conversation between the boys for a while longer but that ended in angry swear words and a dead end so I had to erase it. **

***I was cleaning the bathroom one day and noticed that this would be the coolest place to hide a lock for a secret room or something so I figured it would be best used in this story.**


	2. Natalie

_**Take me by the tounge and I'll know you, kiss me till you're drunk and I'll show you all my moves like Jagger, I've got the moves like Jagger, I've got the moves like Jagger, I've got the moooooooooves like Jaggar!**_ **Okay, I've played this song a trillion times in a row and I'm not sick of it. That's HUGE for me.**

**I HAVE OFFICIALLY CONQUERED MY FEAR OF THE DARK! Proof: I'm sitting in my room at quarter to one in the morning with my mom's laptop, snacks and my headphones. **

**Sorry but that's a huge accomplishment in my book. Right next to beating my friend (or anyone in her family) at Wii tennis… *sigh* I'll get there.**

**I wonder how many chapters in my life have had a Marron 5, or Mika song in the note… I'll count and let you know ;)**

**Interrogater: WHERE WERE YOU LAST NIGHT!**

**Me: I-I-I…**

**Interrogater: SPIT IT OUT!**

**Me: *mutters***

**Interrogater: WHAT? SPEAK UP**

**Me: First of all: please don't yell. Second: I said I was trying to steal the rights to the 39 Clues.**

**Interrogater: Oh… never mind. You're free. Not the person we're looking for.**

**Me: What did they do?**

**Interrogater: They stole the last cookie!**

**Me: *backs out of room nervously* psh… wow… who would do such a thing… *runs***

**Kay this chap I hope will explain some of what happened in the past twenty years.**

**Random chap I found in a well: Okay so in 2012 Amy-**

**Me: Not you! **

**Third Person (the chap?) POV**

Amy was driving home from the stronghold.*** **Well… trying to. She wasn't driving much. Damn traffic.

"Cars, cars, go away. Come again another day." she chanted under her breath.

The cars didn't move.

"It was worth the try."

Amy wasn't sure why she was talking to herself. She did a lot. When she was reading, working, thinking, sleeping, sitting in traffic, wherever; she muttered to herself. It had gotten her in a lot of trouble over the years. But it also did good things.

The cars didn't seem to want to move any time soon so Amy picked up a file she was supposed to read on Vespers.

"Natalie…" she muttered. She still couldn't believe it what Natalie had done. Seventeen years ago, when she was fourteen, Natalie fell in love with a boy called Jake Thorne.****** Jake was a good-looking, smart sixteen-year-old who obviously really loved Natalie. At first Ian wasn't so thrilled about the fact that he was older but he got over it.

But no one is perfect. Jake was Vesper. Did Natalie leave her boyfriend and stay true to her family? No, she joined the Vespers with him. She just left, leaving nothing but a note saying that she wasn't coming back.

_~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~_

Ring! Ring! _Amy's phone was ringing. _

"_Hello?" she answered._

"_Amy! Natalie's gone!" Ian's panicked voice shouted from the other end._

"_Gone? What do you mean gone?" Amy asked "She died?"_

"_Worse! She joined them! She went to live with Jake!" Ian explained, his voice cracking. _

"_Oh my God…" was all Amy could say. They probably weren't going to see Natalie again. Why? Because Jake lived in London. He was in America on vacation._

_~~~~~~~End Flashback~~~~~~~_

Amy shook off the memories. Every time the Vespers were mentioned Natalie came to mind. Natalie had been Ian's only family at the time and then even she was gone. He was a wreck for months, beating himself up for not doing something sooner to stop her. Amy hated those memories.

"Don't think about her." Amy whispered.

That was hard to do when the last name Thorne was in big bold letters at the top of the first page.

**Alex's POV**

Why couldn't my stupid brother be quiet? If he gave us away I swear I'd have killed him. Painfully. This was a _very _important mission.

Well… technically he is my half brother. His mother, Natalie, had been with our dad for two years and then they had some big fight and my dad married my mother who died when I was only a few months old. Two years later he ran into Natalie again and they started dating and got married and now we have little brother Xavier***~***. We have a confusing family but you get used to it. Natalie is almost like a mother to me but I refuse to refer to her as my mother. She isn't so why should I?

But I suppose it'd be wrong if I killed the kid. He's still family. Maybe I would just hurt him. A lot.

"Are you sure this isn't the door?" Xavier asked for the millionth time.

"I'm sure it's the next one." I told him.

"But what if-"

"It's the next door!"

"Someone's snippy." Xavier teased "Another reason no one would give you the chip with the virus. You're too snippy."

I face palmed myself. "You idiot! What did I tell you not to say?"

"Swear words."

"What _else_?" I asked rhetorically "Not to say that we have a virus!"

"You just said it!"

Just then the door opened and a girl fell out. The light from the room hurt my eyes since we'd been in the dark. Without thinking I caught her. She looked up at me, her jade colored eyes wide with a mix or fear and curiosity.

She stood up and we all looked each other up and down. She had long black hair tied back and tanned skin. She looked something like Natalie minus the green eyes. Why did I feel like I recognized her face?

"W-who are you?" she stuttered. _She doesn't stutter often did she? It's awfully annoying. _I thought.

"Who are _you_?" I asked.

"I asked you f-first." she said. _Damn it, where do I know that face? _I asked myself. I knew her form somewhere. _A picture, a name, a hope… wait… not _a_ hope. Hope is her name. Hope Cahill. CAHILL!_ It clicked. I was looking at one of the most powerful Cahills alive. Alarms went off in my brain. Telling me to grab my brother and run before she figured out-

"Are you Vespers?" Hope asked. She sounded a bit frightened.

"Are you?" I asked.

She shook her head. Knew it.

"Well then, dear, you just heard our conversation did you?" I asked, reaching for the dart gun Natalie made us keep with us.

I didn't give her a chance to answer before I shot her and she fell unconscious.

"You didn't think this through did you?" Xavier asked me "Now we have to take her back or she'll tell on us."

I hadn't thought that through.

"The worst part," Xavier said "I think there's a hole in my pocket. The virus is gone."

_Idiot_

**Yay! All in… two hours! Done!**

***Amy and Ian both have jobs! They just, like, stop at the strongholds on the way home or something I don't know… didn't think it through all the way. Hey, I had to do a lot of rethinking and I just missed this one.**

****That SO wasn't intentionally taken from **_**Halo **_**by Alexandra Adorenetto. I was just thinking "Hey I'll use Jake as his name" then I was thinking of last names I knew starting with T and Thorne came to mind. And he was going to live in London before I gave him a name so that definatally was an accident. If you don't know what I'm babbling about… well Imma shut up.**

***~*That WAS intentional naming. Again, if you don't understand what I mean… ignore me.**


	3. Kidnapped

**I hate when I find a story, read it and the notice that it hasn't been updated in over a year. It haunts me since it had no ending. Not even a note explaining that it's canceled or up for adoption it's just abandon. Like… raising a puppy but you get too busy and can't spend time with it so instead of putting it up for adoption to find someone who can you just leave it out on the street to attack people. **

**Yeah I said that because I read a story the other day and it hasn't been updated in years and now it's haunting me. **

**Anyway, off the subject of abandoned story puppies…**

**I don't on anything! Yay!**

**Grace's POV**

"Damn it, Luke, I swear if you don't give that back right now-" I growled at my little brother.

"What? What will you-" Luke started to say then I smirked.

"I'll take that." mom said, taking my iPod from Luke and setting it on the table.

"Umm… hi mom?" Luke tried "How was your day?"

"Luke I told you a million times not to bother your sisters." she reminded him.

"I know." he muttered.

"Now go find something else to do." she told him. Luke walked away obediently.

"Thanks" I said, picking up my iPod "he's really annoying sometimes."

"Siblings are annoying but you love them anyway." mom told me "And watch your language. He's ten."

"I'd love him more if he left me alone."

"If he left you alone he wouldn't be your brother."

"True. I would think an alien ate his soul and possessed his body."

She laughed "Well I sure hope that doesn't happen. Now where are your sisters?"

"Why should I know? Am I my sisters' keeper*****?" I asked.

"Very funny." she said, walking towards the stairs.

A few minutes later mom came back down. "Have you seen Hope?" she asked "I can't find her anywhere."

"Nope. Check your room. She snoops around in there a lot." I told her not looking up from my journal "I wasn't supposed to tell you that. So you didn't hear it from me."

**Amy's POV**

"Don't panic, Amy, don't panic." I muttered to myself. Hope was probably just in one of the secret rooms.

When I got to the bedroom the door was unlocked. I made a mental note to change the lock.

When I went down to the small room under the bathroom I saw the door wide open. Had she gone down that hall?

"Hope?" I called down the hallway. No reply.

"Don't worry, don't worry" I repeated, taking my cell phone out of my pocket, praying that Hope had hers.

"Hello?" a voice whispered tiredly on the other end.

"Hope! Oh thank God! Where are you?"

"I'm not-"

She was cut off by another voice in the background. "No cell phones!"

Then the line went dead.

Not knowing what else to do, I dialed Ian's phone.

"Hello?"

"Ian! I can't find Hope anywhere! I've looked _everywhere_! I called her cell phone but then someone told her she couldn't use her phone and hung up and the door in the file room is open and-" I babbled into the phone at the speed of light.

"Shh… Amy, calm down. Now what's going on?" Ian asked, sounding worried.

"Hope is gone! I can't find her!" I said again.

There was silence on the other end for a moment. "I'm almost there. Don't worry; I'm sure she's fine."

"I hope you're right…"

"Me too, love."

"I'll see you in a minute, love you."

"Love you too."

"Bye."

And I hung up. "Don't panic don't panic don't panic" I chanted.

But when I closed the door I saw it.

Behind the door was a little computer chip about the size of a small flash drive.

And on one side there was a sticker

_**Property of J. Thorne**_

"Okay, now panic."

**Hope's POV**

"What the hell was that for?" I asked Alex. I'd woken up in a plane to my phone vibrating in my pocket. When I picked it up, mom asked me where I was and when I tried to tell her I didn't know, that guy from the hall had taken my phone.

"I can't have you communicating with anyone. You know too much."

"About what do I know too much about?" I asked.

"You were listening to our conversation about the virus we were going to put in your parents' main computer." the other boy said. I hadn't noticed him at first. He seemed about eleven or so with black hair and turquoise eyes. Unlike Alex whose hair was light brown and his eyes were a pretty grey color. Wait… no not pretty. Right? Yeah not pretty. Just grey. Forget I ever said pretty. I don't find anything about him pretty, handsome or cute. Nope. And even if I did, the guy freaking kidnapped me! There's more to people than looks.

"You idiot! She didn't know that part! Can't you keep a secret?" Alex yelled.

"Sorry…" he muttered.

"I swear, Xavier, it'd be easier to tape your mouth shut!"

"It's not like she'll tell anyone!" Xavier said.

"She's Hope _Cahill_! Why wouldn't she?"

"Because she… Well the plan is off anyway because no one told me that my pocket had a hole in it!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! How do you know my name?" I asked. The boys looked at me as if they'd forgotten I was there.

"We know a lot about you." Alex said ominously.

"Oh yeah? What are my parents' names?"

"Ian Kabra and Amy Cahill." Alex answered.

"How many siblings do I have?"

"Three. Grace, seventeen, Olivia, fourteen and Luke, ten." Xavier rattled off.

"When's my birthday?"

"May third, two thousand thirteen."**** **Alex said.

"What time?"

"Three eighteen in the morning." Xavier said. Dang, these guys were good, I didn't even know that.

"Wow that's creepy."

"Thanks." the boys said together. Then they looked at each other weirdly.

"Are you brothers or something?" I asked. If they got to know so much about me then I at least deserved to know that.

"Yes." Xavier said at the same time Alex said "Sort of."

"Sort of?" I asked. I really didn't care but I wanted to keep them talking.

"Half-brothers. My mother died when I was little and dad remarried and they had him." Alex explained.

"Him has a name!" Xavier exclaimed.

"So… where's this plane going exactly?" I asked.

"We're go-" Alex covered his little brother's mouth.

"Secrets, brother." he told him. Xavier nodded.

"So… you're Vespers right? Is that your last name?" now I was just spitting out random questions.

"No. Thorne." Xavier told me. Alex said nothing so apparently that wasn't a secret.

_Thorne_ I thought. Why did I recognize that name? I heard it before. Maybe from my parents… or Grace? Did she say that once? Hmmm…

"Is that a problem?" Alex's silky accent broke my train of thought. Alex and Xavier's accents sounded different from dad's. Thicker I guess. Dad had lived in America for almost twenty years so his accent was almost gone completely. Sometimes you could still notice it though.

"Hello?" he asked. I looked up and he looked worried. Not worried like _"Oh-I-hope-she's-okay-because-I-actually-care" _worried. Worried like _"I-hope-she's-okay-because-I-can't-bring-back-dead-slash-sick-slash-mentally-insane-captive" _worried.

"Sorry. The name just sounds familiar." I said.

Xavier muttered something but Alex elbowed him in the side.

"Weird." Alex said ominously.

"So… how much longer will we be on this plane?" I asked. I looked around. Must've been a private jet or something because there was no one else around.

"About another five hours or so. We have a while." Alex informed me.

"Five hours? Well then… can you tell me what you're planning to do with me?" I asked.

The boys looked at each other. "We aren't sure. If we take you to the prison we'll have to tell mum that we failed and we can't do that. And if we let you go you'll tell on us. We're going to figure something out." Xavier explained.

"So… will you kill me?" I asked, a little worried.

Alex smirked. "Well there's an idea." then he laughed "No we wouldn't kill you for no reason."

"Why not?" Xavier asked.

Alex whispered something to Xavier who nodded. "Got it." he said.

"So… are you going to lock me up somewhere?"

Alex nodded. "And I think I know where."

**Okay, it's 12:30am so I suppose I'm keeping up with once-a-day updates. I'll be done in plenty of time for school!**

**By the way, I want to thank my friend Adriana because if she hadn't cleared up my facts I would have rewritten the whole plot. Haha then again she's not going to read this. She doesn't even know I write. **

***"Am I my brother's keeper?" I know it's horrible since Cain said that because he killed his brother but it's one of the quotes from the Bible that I use most often.**

****This is twenty years after the first series which was started in 2008 so twenty years later would be 2028 and Hope is fifteen so her birthday was in 2013. Right? I need Dan for this…**


	4. Bugs, Games and Insanity

**I did all my chores before I even ate breakfast this morning so I have all day to write. Well… if I finish this chapter I'm probably going to read but we'll see.**

**My ears are ringing! Is that bad? I cannot lose hearing! I need music, birds chirping in the morning, the click of the keys on the key board, the sound of my friends and family's voices, my dogs barking, even my teach droning on and on about American history (which is THE most boring subject. Geography? Okay. Ancient Civilizations? I love it! AMERICAN history? No no no no no!) I'll miss! Wait… oh it stopped. THANK YOU, GOD!**

**Well that was random… Anyway, it's the first of August and I'm hoping to have this done before school starts on the seventeenth. With an update or two a day I should be okay.**

**I own nothing.**

**Ah, the ringing is back… now it's gone… what's wrong with me?**

**Livi's POV**

When mom asked where Hope was, I didn't think anything of it. She disappears all the time and she's always back within an hour or so.

But this was different. It had been at least an hour. Mom had disappeared into her room where we weren't allowed to go so I wasn't so sure that she'd come back.

When dad got home he went straight to mom in their room and closed the door. What was going on?

About fifteen minutes later the doorbell rang. When I opened the door Uncle Dan was standing there. Hope being gone plus mom and dad acting weird plus Dan being here equaled something bad was happening. I let him in, hoping he would explain.

"Hi, Livi. Where's Amy?" he asked. He looked worried.

"I think they're in the bedroom. What's going on?" I asked.

"I'm not sure yet." he said, walking upstairs.

I hated being so clueless. I mean, I was always last to know things but I never knew I didn't know something. This time I knew there was something they weren't telling me and I didn't like it. Especially because it seemed to involve my sister.

Hope and I argued endlessly and it almost always ended in a wrestling match but I don't know what I'd do without her.

So I decided to go to Luke. Why? Luke was our eyes and ears. His little Ekat buddy from school taught him all about bugs and Luke planted them everywhere. He knew anything and everything that was said and done in this house.

"Luke, I need your help." I told him.

"What's in it for me?" he asked, not looking up from his dsi.

"You'll want to hear this too. Do you have bugs in mom and dad's room?" I asked.

Luke stopped playing his game. "I do. I don't use them though."

"Why not?"

"There's only so much lovey-dovey talk a guy can take from his parents." Luke said, looking a little grossed out "I didn't even bother to use the cameras."

"Well I'll need you to use them again. Uncle Dan is here too I need to know what they're saying."

"Five bucks." he said.

"What?"

"Five bucks and you can use them."

I sighed and found two dollars in my pocket. "You'll get the rest after I use them."

Luke stood up and got a box from under his bed. He opened it and there were a bunch of little screens with speakers on the side. They looked like GPS's. There was a label on each one that said things like _**Kitchen**_, _**Hallway**_ and _**Hope and Livi's room**_.

"Hey!" I said, picking up the on for our room.

Luke took it before I could mess with it. "Not the one we're looking for." he picked up the ones that said _**Parents' room **_and _**Hallway**_ and turned them on.

In the hallway screen the camera showed Dan knocking on our parents' door. No one answered so he picked the lock.

Then we looked at the camera inside the room. Our parents weren't there. Dan didn't seem surprised by that and walked toward the bathroom. We couldn't see him after that.

"Dang where'd they go?" Luke asked. I assumed he didn't have cameras in the bathroom because that would just be weird.

"I don't know." I told him.

"I hate not knowing things! Why do adults always keep secrets from us?" Luke asked.

"They think we're too young to handle it."

"That's stupid." Luke said.

"I agree."

**Dan's POV**

When I got down to Amy's file room Amy was crying on Ian's shoulder. If I had a nickel for every time I'd seen that in the time they've been together… well I guess I could buy some Skittles at least. I mean nickels aren't worth that much.

"Okay, what's going on?" I asked "You're phone call wasn't exactly clear."

Ian opened his mouth to explain and then looked at Amy sobbing quietly into his shirt and just handed me a little flash drive thing. When I read the name on it I knew exactly what was going on.

"Oh…" I said. I wasn't sure what to do "Did you call-"

"Yes" Ian said "We we called _everyone._"

I knew that meant we were going to have more Cahills searching than there are cops in the whole state of New York.

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

"We can't call the police until tomorrow because of that whole twenty-four hour thing but if we wait twenty-four hours-" Ian stopped talking. He didn't have to say it. We all knew. If the Vespers really had her, Hope could be dead by tomorrow.

**Alex's POV**

"Rock, paper, scissors!" Hope and Xavier chanted while I watched, amused. I suppose I should be thankful that she was keeping him entertained but they'd been repeating "Rock, paper, scissors!" for an hour.

"If someone says 'rock paper scissors' one more time I'm going to go insane!" I told them.

Hope thought for a moment and looked at Xavier. "Rock, paper, scissors!" they shouted.

I sighed and covered my ears. Hope looked at me for a minute. "You didn't go insane." she almost looked disappointed.

"I am sick of this game though. Let's play something else." Xavier said.

"Do you want to play the question game?" Hope asked.

"What's the question game?" Xavier asked. I rolled my eyes. If anyone was going to go insane now it would be Xavier.

"You don't know how to play the question game?" I asked.

"No."

"You lose." Hope and I said together.

"Do you want to play the question game?" she asked.

"I don't know how! Tell me!"

"You lose." I told him.

This went on for a while until Xavier finally figured out that he had to say everything as a question.

Eventually Hope fell asleep. I looked at her phone. It was ten o'clock pm at the time she was used too. There was only one hour left till we got back to London. Xavier came and sat next to me since his playmate was sleeping.

"She's funny. We aren't going to hurt her are we?" he asked.

"I don't plan on it. We just need to keep her until we get another virus and complete the mission." I told him, looking over at our sleeping captive.

Hope looked happy and calm. When she'd been playing with Xavier I could tell that it was only an act. But now she was genuinely calm. She had taken her black hair out of the ponytail and now it veiled her face. I couldn't shake the resemblance between her and Natalie. Well of course there's a reason so that. Her father _is_ Natalie's brother. It was weird they both have the same long black hair, tan skin and pretty face. The difference was their personality. They're practically opposites there.

"Alex?" Xavier asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yes?" I said.

"You were staring." he informed me.

"I was just thinking. She looks a lot like Natalie doesn't she?"

Xavier nodded. "She does. Except for her green eyes. Mum's are amber."

"Yes. Her mother's eyes are jade green as well." I said.

Xavier smiled "Like Harry Potter! He looks just like his dad except for his mum's green eyes!"*****

I laughed. Only he would notice that. "I guess you're right. Except I don't think she's a witch. She would have gotten out of here on a Firebolt by now."

"Darn…" Xavier muttered.

I laughed and looked over at Hope again. _One thing's for sure, _I thought _she's prettier than Harry Potter._

Then I banged my head on the window.

"What did you do that for?" Xavier asked.

"Being in America messed up my sleep and it's affecting my brain." I decided.

**Okay so I finished just in time to go upstairs I may not even have to steal the laptop tonight!**

**Okay y'all decide if that was really Alex's messed up sleep or if he likes Hope. I asked some people and he's her step-cousin so it's cool.**

***I couldn't help but notice that. James and Lily always sort of reminded me of Ian and Amy.**


	5. Explaination

_**I've been high, I've been low. I've been yes and I've been oh Hell no. I've been rock n roll and disco; won't you save me San Francisco? I've been up, I've been down. I've been so damn lost that you're not around. I've been reggae and calypso; won't you save me San Francisco? **_

**There! I started off with Train this time. By the way, for y'all who are keeping up:**

**Maroon 5: 3**

**Mika: 2**

**Taylor Swift: 3 **

**Bruno Mars: 1 **

**Britney Spears: 1 **

**A grand total of ten. And that's only in my notes. Not including ones mentioned in the stories. **

**Any who… **

**Oh, and this chapter will be a short one cuz y'all need to vote on my profile so I know if Alex and Hope like each other before I can keep typing. I really only need one person to either vote or tell me in a review/PM and I'll take that as the choice. If no one says anything I'll just have them together kay? That was my original intention anyway.**

**Dang I'm tired but I have to at least start on this… *head falls on keyboard***

**Xavier: WAKE UP!**

**Me: AH! Okay, okay, I'm up! **

**Xavier I told you to get the candy! But no you had to get the healthy apple.**

**Me: I wanted an apple!**

**Xavier: But if you had candy you would be wide awake!**

**Me: Shut up!**

**Xavier: Why? You don't own me!**

**Me: I do! **

**Xavier: But you don't own the 39 Clues!**

**Me: I know…**

**Luke's POV**

When mom, dad and Dan finally came out of their little hiding spot I knew something bad happened. I was kind of obvious because mom was crying, dad looked like he wanted to kill someone (literally) and even Dan looked serious. That was the main giveaway.

"Luke, go find Grace and Livi." dad told me.

I ran off to find Grace and Livi talking in Grace's room.

"I think you're- hi, Luke." Grace said.

"Umm… dad told me to get you guys. I think it's really important." I said. Neither of the girls hesitated, they both stood up and practically ran downstairs to the living room. I didn't want to be the last one there so I ran too.

"What's going on?" we all asked at the same time. Normally I would've found that funny but now was a bad time to laugh.

"Sit down." Dan told us. We obeyed.

"Where's Hope?" Livi asked quietly, looking scared.

"Why's mom crying?" I asked.

Grace said nothing.

"We think Hope was kidnapped by the Vespers." dad said.

It was silent. For a really long time. We were all thinking.

_Hope. Vespers. Gone. _I thought. That's it, my brain was in shock. A few minutes later my thoughts were clearer _They have her! They have my sister! Now I REALLY need to know what kind of crazy stuff is in their room! _Okay, I admit that wasn't the right thing to think but I couldn't help it! Hope goes in there and gets kidnapped, mom and dad go in there and they find out that she was kidnapped, Dan goes in there and disappears. _What. Is. In. That. Room?_ I thought.

Grace was first to break the silence. "How do you know?" she asked.

Mom had stopped crying a bit and looked up. Her and dad exchanged looks and nodded.

"W-we found th-this in a s-s-secret r-room." mom stuttered, handing Grace some kind of computer chip. Livi looked confused but I think Grace understood it.

Again, I know I shouldn't have been focused on this but I couldn't help it. "You have a secret room? Where? Is it in your bedroom?"

Grace and Livi looked at me like I was insane but the adults smiled a little.

"Yes there are m-many s-secret rooms, Lukie." mom said, using her old nickname for me. Normally I would've protested but now wasn't the time to argue with her.

"Who's J. Thorne?" Livi asked.

Mom and Dan looked at dad who was looking at the floor. He looked up at them and nodded.

"I know exactly what's going through your heads right now." dad said "I lost a sister to the Vespers too."

Livi and I were shocked again but Grace seemed to know. "Natalie?" she asked.

It was dad's turn to be shocked. "How do you know?"

"I… I remember the name. I think I heard you guys talking about it one day when I was really little." Grace explained.

Well I'd never heard it until today and I was curious. "What happened? Did you ever get her back?" I asked. If they could get Natalie back they'd be able to get Hope back too right?

"Well… they didn't kidnap her. She joined them."

"Why?" I asked. Who would choose to join the Vespers?

"Her boyfriend was a Vesper. His name was Jake Thorne."

We all looked at the chip thing. _**Property of J. Thorne**_

"Let me get this straight. We have an aunt who's a Vesper who we didn't know about and her boyfriend – or maybe even her husband and our uncle – kidnapped Hope?" I asked "God, our lives are messed up."

"It's the life of a Cahill." Dan told me. I'd almost forgotten he was there.

"Well that sucks." I said. Mom glared at me. I knew I wasn't supposed to say "sucks" but it did. There wasn't another word to fit.

"Yeah it does. It really does." Dan told me.

**Darn it! Last night I was, like, really into this and knew exactly what I was going to type but the battery died. Darn, darn, darn!**

**Anyway, someone vote/review please! I need to be told what to do with Alex and Hope! If I don't get a response in… ten hours I'm going to just put them together whether you like it or not!**


	6. Awkward Tigers!

_**I park my car outside your house, hoping one day you'll come home. It seems the woman that I love is someone that I hardly know. After all this time, I finally found a way to be alone. I'm terrified. I think that I may be losing my mind!**_

**Make that one more for Maroon 5!**

**Thank you, and **CloverThyne**, my loyal reviewer, and **Amazingly Brilliant** for responding! Hmmm well other than **The Girl of the Moon **and **39cluesgal **you're the only reviewers ;) Well there's also a random, anonymous review that didn't have a pen name of any kind. I'll thank them too! **

**Hmm I'm thanking my reviewers less than halfway through the story rather than at the end. That's odd, huh? **

**Kay, let's see if I can finish this before **_**That 70s Show **_**comes on so I won't have to do this at night and can sleep peacefully! I have… two hours! GO!**

**WAIT! I own nothing.**

**NOW GO!**

**Hope POV**

Either I'm a really heavy sleeper, or they shot me again because when I woke up I in what appeared to be a basement. Alex and Xavier were gone and there was a note. Taped to my face. I made a metal note to find out who's brilliant idea that was.

_**Hope,  
>We're upstairs. Whatever you do, DON'T GO UPSTAIRS OR MAKE NOISE! If you value your life you probably shouldn't even move. If you're caught, we're all dead (literally in your case). We're going to say we killed the files and somehow we'll figure out a way to actually do that and get you back. You know… probably…<br>~Alex and Xavier**_

_Probably?_ I didn't want to think what would happen if they didn't figure it out. It'd probably live in their basement until my death which, with my life in the hands of two slightly confused boys, probably wasn't too far away.

I reread the note a few more times so I didn't miss anything. I read the bottom again and smiled, thinking about how much arguing there must've been over who's name went first. Somehow, Alex had gotten that spot though.

It wasn't until then that I'd actually got the time to think. There were three things on my mind.

One: I hoped they'd thought of some way to get me food and water… I hated having to depend completely on them.

Two: I missed my family. Dang they were probably freaking out…

Three: How long would it take till I could leave? I was already getting bored.

I sighed and started playing with my fingers. When I was little I would pretend they were people and make up stories about princesses or spies or something. I wish I was still that creative. Instead I ended up trying to thumb wrestle myself.

After Lord-knows-how-long I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I didn't know who it was so I hid behind… well it was in a dark corner, I'm not sure what it was.

"Hope?" I heard Xavier whisper.

I came out from my hiding spot into where there was some light.

"There you are! Were you hiding?" he asked.

"Yeah… I wasn't sure who was coming." I told him.

"Smart. No one comes down here but best to be safe."

"Are you alone?" I asked, wondering where Alex was. Not that I cared but I was curious.

He nodded. "Only one of us can come at a time to avoid suspicion. One of us will be down here at least once or twice a day to give you food and water and stuff." Good. They weren't going to starve me.

Xavier handed me a bag. "This should be enough for today I think… maybe…" he explained.

"Thanks." I said.

"I need to leave now. We have training in ten minutes." Xavier said awkwardly. He obviously felt weird talking to me about Vesper training.

He turned to go back up the stairs but looked back. "You're not what I thought a Cahill would be like. I feel kind of bad keeping you here. But we can't have you telling on us…"

"I get it. I would have told on you." I said truthfully.

"Well you're honest." he shrugged and went back up.

I sat down on the floor and looked through the bag. There was a bottle of water, some sandwiches, a bag of pretzels and a yo-yo. I smiled at that. The kid must've known I was bored.

I ate half of one of the sandwiches and drank some of the water but not much. I wanted to make it last all day. I messed with the yo-yo for a while. It oddly kept me entertained. Somehow I always found something to do with it.

I know it was risky but I couldn't stay in the same place. I stood up and walked around. I didn't touch anything, afraid of what it might do. I just walked in circles, messing around with the yo-yo, thinking about my family. I was really starting to miss them. I hoped they weren't looking for me but they most likely were. They had no idea that I was okay and that I was going to be back, hopefully, in a few days. They didn't know that the people I'd been kidnapped by were actually decent people. Most likely, within a few days, a bunch of Cahills would be starting World War three with the leader of the Vespers for kidnapping me and the Vespers would have no idea what they were talking about. Then they'd probably find me and I'd be killed and Alex and Xavier would be… well punished with every punishment except death.

Oddly, I didn't want to get them in trouble. Xavier was fun and sweet and even Alex seemed nice. He wasn't quite as talkative and… immature as his brother but that wasn't exactly a bad thing. They obviously didn't mean to hurt me and the way they talked it sounded like they hadn't even meant to kidnap me. In a way it was my fault for snooping in my parents' stuff. What am I saying? If I hadn't been there we would've lost tons of important information!

_~~~~~~~A while later…about nine pm~~~~~~~_

I guess I took a nap or something because I was woke up by more footsteps.

I hid again, just in case.

"Hope?" it was Alex this time.

"Hi." I said, coming back out.

I could tell it was night time because the tiny windows that let in some light were dark. The problem was, I couldn't see Alex.

I heard the sound of something hitting the floor, rolling and Alex cursing.

"What was that?" I asked.

"I dropped the torch.*****" he said.

"You dropped fire on the ground?" I asked "Shouldn't this place be burning."

He laughed. "No, I meant a… I think you would call it a flashlight? I dropped the _flashlight_."

"Oh." I felt really stupid. "I'll help find it."

We both crawled around on the floor trying to find it for a good ten minutes.

After a while I found something cold and metal. "I think I-" right when I was going to pick it up the light rolled away. "Never mind…"

I followed the sound of the flashlight rolling and when it stopped I grabbed for it.

Or… I thought I did. But what my hand touched didn't feel like the flashlight. It felt like a hand. Apparently Alex had the same idea.

When our hands touched for a second it felt like electricity. Not like static, like… weird. Really, _really_, weird. I felt my face heat up as I pulled away.

Alex cleared his throat. "I… found it."

When he turned it on I could see that his face was red as well. We both stood up and our faces were, like, a few inches apart. My heart started pounding. That didn't really help the awkward situation.

**Alex's POV**

I decided that the world was against me that day. First, I'm _worrying _about our little captive all day, then when I finally see her I do something stupid like drop the torch. And when we find it, I accidentally touch her hand and I feel a weird tingle and I actually _blush_. Now, we're really close and I'm _not moving_! And finally, I was actually listing all these things! Hmm… I'll remember to have my head checked.

We stayed there for a while, making my heartbeat speed up a little. It was weird being so close the her but I couldn't move. Like I was paralyzed.******

Eventually Hope took a few steps back. "So… we found it!" she said, attempting to smile victoriously.

"Yes… I just came down to see how you were." I said.

"Well, considering I've been taken from my family, flown to another continent and now I'm stuck in the dark basement of the sworn enemy, have nothing to do and almost no human contact with my life in the hands of two teenage boys I'd say okay." Hope said sarcastically.

"Look, I'm really sorry about this okay? I really wish there was another way but there's not." I told her.

"You could just fly me back and leave me alone." she suggested.

"And have you ruin the mission? Hope, I can't betray my family just because I don't completely hate a Cahill!" I said, a little louder than I probably should have.

"What if I agreed not to tell on you. You're mission and your failure will stay a secret."

"How can I trust you?"

"Oh yeah… I forgot about that…" she muttered. I smiled a bit. Hope is something alright…

She thought for a minute. "I have lots of free time down here. I'll think of deal okay? Anything to go home." she finished quietly.

I felt a flutter inside. Sympathy – I recognized. I didn't normally feel bad for people. Sometimes when some agents that screwed up and Natalie got pissed off but this was more… vivid.*~*

"You really miss your family don't you?" I asked her gently.

"More than I thought I would. I never thought I'd miss arguing with Livi or getting spied on by Luke or Grace's loud music or mom and dad telling me what to do… but I do. Right now, if my mom told me to do the dishes, I probably would." in the low light I saw her give me a sad smile.

"I'm really sorry… I'll try to get you back soon. I promise. In the mean time, you can think about a deal." I said.

"Thanks. I understand that this wasn't totally your fault… I shouldn't have been down there…"

"Well we shouldn't have either. We kind of broke in."

"Duh! I didn't think that someone just let you in." she said.

I laughed. "You know, I know every detail about your family but I don't even know you're favorite color." I said randomly.

"Umm… well I guess orange." she answered

"Why orange?"

"Because, it's the color of sunrises and sunsets. I love sunrises but I'm never up early enough to see them. Then I like the fruit orange which is orange. Also, I like tigers and tigers are orange." she explained.

"Some tigers are white." I told her.

"Yes but I like the orange ones."

"What do you have against white tigers?"

We spent God-knows-how-long discussing tigers and colors. The weird part was: I kind of liked it. Hope had fun ways of looking at things. I liked that.

**Hmm… obviously I didn't finish it in time considering it's been over twenty-four hours since I started this… sorry… I JUST MADE IT! It's 11: 52pm**

**Important question (sort of) : does anyone know a way to get all thirty-nine clues on the site without buying the books? Cheats included. I really need to do mission ten and I'm short on pocket money.**

***I don't know if this is correct… I got my lessons on British terms from **_**House of Anubis**_** (miss that show…) and **_**Harry Potter**_** (miss that… everything) so I'm not positive if that's really what a flashlight is called… if not I feel really, **_**really**_**, stupid.**

******_**I'm not paralyzed, but I seem to be struck by you!**_** Haha looove that song! Sorry it played in my head when I typed that.**

***~*AMIAN REFERENCE! :) 3 Ironically: I still don't know what vivid means…**


	7. Interesting

"**What some people call weakness, others call knowledge." ~Luke Cahill **

**I read one of those fics where they read **_**Vespers Rising **_**and noticed that Luke talked about losing his beloved. Even the original Lucian fell in love. While some call love weakness, Luke saw it as knowledge. We should tell that to the Kabras. **

**Wait… did that make sense to y'all? I don't even know if that made sense. **

**I own nothing. **

**THIS WILL GET GOOD I hope…**

**Natalie's POV**

"And have you ruin the mission? Hope, I can't betray my family just because I don't completely hate a Cahill!" I heard a muffled voice. _Cahill?_ I thought. That name brought up so many… mixed memories.

"Jake, did you hear that?" I asked.

"Hear what?" he asked.

"I could have sworn I heard the name Cahill…"

He kissed the top of my head. "Honey, you're probably just imagining it."

I nodded. Of course I was imagining it. No one in this house talked about the Cahills… _Cahills... _I hated hearing that name. I felt so many different things about that name. They were my family and I'd betrayed them. Now they were my enemies. I didn't even know what to feel about them anymore. Sometimes I missed Ian. More than sometimes… more like all the time. The first few weeks – maybe months – after I left I cried. I still missed him. A day didn't go by that I didn't wonder how he was doing, how he and Amy ended up or if he was even alive. For all I knew he could have been hit by a bus and killed (though I think he's too smart and quick for that…). I didn't want to think like that but anything's possible.

"Natalie? Nat, are you alright?" Jake asked me.

I nodded. "I was just… thinking…" I muttered.

"You're not still thinking about those Cahills are you?"

"So what if I am? They're still my family!" I snapped.

"But you left them. Now, we're your family. _I'm_ your family. Your mother works with us too. It's not like you left your only family." he told me, putting a comforting arm around me.

"I know but I still feel bad… _I _was _his_ only family. My mother still hates him and my father's been missing for over twenty years, surely he's dead by now. For all I know Ian could be dead too!"

"Well I could find that out for you but you refuse to look into Cahills' files."

"I don't want to know. If it turns out something horrible happened to him – or even one of my cousins – I don't know how I'd take it…"

"Have it your way." he sighed. I'd known Jake long enough for him to figure out that there was never any point in arguing with me.

**Hope POV**

_~~~~~~~next day about five am~~~~~~~_

When I woke up the sun was right in my face. As if it was aiming all its light at my eyes. I made a mental note t sleep somewhere else next time.

I looked around. Same old basement. Same unidentified objects piled on the walls, same concrete floor, same Alex sleeping on the floor, same tangled yo-yo on the floor… Wait,_ ALEX_? Damn it, the boy fell asleep! Well I did too… but I'm _supposed _to sleep down here. Not _supposed to _really but I'm currently living here. He's living upstairs. Translation: HE SHOULDN'T BE HERE!

"Wake up!" I whisper/yelled, poking him. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!"

Stupid boy didn't move… then I remembered something that always got my family up. I'd have to change it around…

"Alex, the Cahills are attacking!"

He jumped up, banging his head into mine. Well, he was awake…

"Ow!" we both said simultaneously.

"Watch it!" we said together again, rubbing our heads. This time we laughed quietly.

"We fell asleep." I told him.

"Really? No way, I had no idea." Alex said sarcastically.

"Well it's true. Now get your sarcastic butt upstairs before they wonder where you are."

"Relax, it's only…" he looked at his watch "five in the morning."

"Wow... damn you, sunlight, for waking me up so freaking early!" I told the window.

"Don't yell at the sun. If you hurt it's feelings it won't come up tomorrow and we'll all die." he told me.

"Then it won't be waking me up early will it?"

He laughed. "You have an interesting way of looking at things."

"Interesting meaning…?"

"Meaning very strange but still very likeable and funny*****"

"I'll take that." I said.

"It was a compliment." Alex said, rolling his eyes.

"I know that."

**Grace's POV**

The next morning was quiet. I was pretty sure that no one slept nor did they talk. It was weird because most mornings when I get downstairs it's chaos over who ate the last of the Lucky Charms while we're trying to finish last minute homework. Didn't happen today. No one was in a hurry to go anywhere today. Everyone was just sitting around quietly.

Everyone was worried.

Everyone was scared.

Everyone had no idea what to do.

Everyone but me.

**Someone's POV**

Later that day I got an IM.

_**R U COMING OR NOT?**_

I sighed and responded

_**Not 2day. **_

She responded instantly

_**Do u want 2 do this or not? U HAVE 2 come 2day. **_

Molly****** knew full and well why I couldn't meet her. It was her fault. Or at least sort of.

_**Fine but if we get caught ur ass is toast.**_

The response came instantly.

_**Not w/ witnesses.**_

I sighed. Looks like I was headed to the park.

I made a lame excuse to leave (oddly no one questioned me) and ran to the park.

When I got there Molly was standing by the fountain. "Why are you late?" she snapped.

"You know why! I'm surprised they even let me out of sight since-"

"I don't have time for your chatter. Just give me it." she cut me off.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small object. "Why is this so important to you?" I asked, handing it to her.

"Silly child. You don't know how powerful this is." Molly said, smirking "Those idiots had no idea…" then she started muttering about mix ups and fools.

"I'm not a child." I protested.

"To me you are. Now, ta-ta." she turned to leave.

"Wait! We had a deal. I gave you this… whatever it is! Now for your part of the deal. We have a temporary alliance." I told her. It was true. We were supposed to be enemies but Molly and I agreed to work together. All she needed was this little plastic thing.

"Yeah, well here's the thing about alliances, kid: they aren't written in stone." she pocketed the object and walked off.

I was screwed.

**Oookay here's the thing: my main computer broke down so my family's been living off the laptop so I haven't gotten it much. But I just HAD to write so I stole it again while everyone slept. I'm gunna have to stop this soon cuz school starts next week and I'm busy. I hope I can still finish this before school starts though…**

**Who's this last person? Well I'll tell you when I figure it out… I have a few ideas but I need to narrow it down. If they're Vesper than Molly's Cahill, if they're Cahill than she's Vesper. I think I know who they are but… we'll see.**

***Quoting SugarQueen8490 ;) Thanks (if you're reading this…)!**

****Ahaha now I'm doing this on purpose! **


	8. Damn YoYo

CloverThyne** – Haha well I can't CENTER it around them… not yet… LOL sorry I didn't exactly make that goal did I?**

IceHeartEli** – She? Are you so sure it's a girl? Honestly I'm not… the Ring? Very interesting…**

Lunarflack **– Thank you! LOL I enjoy it too. OMG I'm so glad I could inspire you! Sorry I probably killed you more with this long wait.**

**Wait, wait, wait. I forgot to reply to a review last time.**

Amazingly Brilliant **– Thanks **** glad you like it! I like the name too and forgot to mention it… hmm… and of course she will! You know… after I have some fun with them being apart and clueless about each others' lives. I try to write dramatically… you know for a few seconds before I feel like it's too Sirius. And thanks for the definition. I'm never sure about dictionary definitions…**

**By the way, as I also forgot to mention, **CloverThyne** made up a cute couple name for Alex and Hope and I just had to mention it. Alope! **** Cute right? Haha!**

**I don't own a single thing. In a way I didn't even make the OCs. Ian, Amy and Natalie (along with Jake and whoever his first wife was) did ;)**

**Kay I know I haven't updated in… has it been two months already? Anywho I had school, homework to no end, book releases and over all I was flat out lazy. BUT I am working on… something else. NOT another fanfiction! I'm not cheating on you guys ;) Sorry!**

**Alex POV**

"No, seriously, that's what will happen." Hope said.

"Well I think it'll be like the movie." I told her "Your idea is crazy."

"That movie was too depressing. I like the idea of aliens better. Plus the world flooded in the movie and that won't happen ever again." she thought for a minute "Also, that's a really old movie. It was supposed to happen before we were even born. If the world was going to end like it did in _2012 _it would have already."

Why were we talking about the end of the world? Well to make a long story short, we got _way _off original topic of the color white.

_Buzz, buzz!_ My cell phone vibrated.

_**ALEX! Where r u? Do you realize it's 7? We have training in 30 min!**_

"Damn… I forgot about that…" I muttered to the phone.

"What?" Hope asked.

"I have training today." I explained.

"How long?" she asked. _She must get pretty lonely down here…_ I thought.

"Only until about two. We'll be back." I promised.

"Okay… I'll take a nap or something." she said and started muttering about the sun and five am. I smiled to myself. Hope obviously wasn't someone who liked waking up early. But, then again, who is?

I didn't want to leave. I had training every day. _It's not every day I have girl in my basement that I actually _want _there. OKAY NO! Umm… I mean… that I want in the room under our house… yeah… that sounds better… _

**Hope's POV**

Alex ran into a pole on his way to the stairs. It was kind of funny because it was _right there _but he didn't seem to see it. Distracted much?

When he left I tried to fall asleep but I couldn't. My mind was thinking too much. About Alex and Xavier, about the Vespers, about my family, about all the weird shapes in the basement… my mind wouldn't go to sleep, therefore, my body couldn't either.

Eventually I gave up. I picked up the yo-yo to try untangling it. I was doing pretty good at first but then I got to a knot in the string I couldn't get out. I pulled the string for a while. When I was just about to give up the string came completely off the yo-yo.

_Hmm… now I have a string and a plastic circle… _I thought. The string wasn't strong enough to be any good so I just put the circle on it's side and rolled it around like a cat. It was oddly entertaining. Yes, that's exactly how bored I was.

I don't know how long I did that before I hit it a little hard and it rolled away into a dark corner. I listened to it roll for a bit and then…

_Bang!_ It hit something metal. For such a little thing it made a lot of noise.

Slowly, I walked over to the corner to try finding the circle. The good news? I found it. The bad news? I found it… by tripping over it.

_CRASH! BANG! BOOM CRASH, CRASH BANG!_ Whatever I fell on was hard and metal and made a REALLY loud sound.

_Shit… _I thought _That was so damn loud…_

"What on Earth?" I heard a woman's voice say. _I'm screwed… _I thought.

I quickly tried getting up to hide, only resulting in more noise.

A light came on. I hadn't know there were lights down here. I squinted at the sudden light. I hadn't seen anything more than little beams of sun and flashlight in days so it hurt.

The woman came down the stairs and looked around. At first I thought she wouldn't notice me because the light didn't reach the corner well and it was still kind of dark.

"Who are you?" she asked. Apparently the light was good enough.

She walked over. The woman looked familiar though I couldn't put my finger on who she was or where I knew her face.

She sighed "Is this where Alex has been spending so much time? I already talked to him about girls-"

I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. Did she honestly believe I was Alex's girlfriend?

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"I'm not his _girlfriend_." I said without thinking.

"Then who are you? Why are you here?" she asked.

"I… Umm…" Crap… I was really in a tight spot.

"Come here where I can see you!" she demanded. She sounded angry.

I stood up, hitting the metal a million times, and walked over.

_Where do I know that face? _was my first thought. My second thought was _Oh shoot… I haven't brushed my hair or showered in forever. I probably look like shit. I don't need a mirror to know that… mirror… _suddenly I knew why she looked so familiar.

She looked like an older version of me. Other than her dark eyes. _Those eyes… _I thought _who else do I know with eyes like that... Grace. Luke. Dad… _I was homesick all over again.

When she saw me her eyes widened. She must've noticed the same resemblance. "Oh my God…" she walked up to me and looked at me closer. "Jade green…" she muttered. She smiled sadly for a moment then her face went to shock, then joy, then back to shock.

"What's your name, hon?" she asked.

I thought for a minute. This lady had to be Vesper. I assumed she was Xavier's mother. Should I tell her?

"H-hope." I stuttered.

"Last name?"

I didn't say anything. I knew my name would give me away.

"What's _your _last name?" I asked.

"Thorne. But I get the feeling you might recognize my maiden name. Does the name Kabra ring a bell?" Mrs. Thorne looked hopeful. What was she after.

"I-it…" I wasn't sure what to say. Would telling her who my father was give me away? Why had her last name been Kabra as well?

"It's my father's last name." I whispered, looking at the floor. I expected Mrs. Thorne to shoot me. I expected her to scream. I expect just about anything but what she did next.

She hugged me.

**So there we have it! So so so so so sorry for the L-O-N-G wait! I have SO much distracting me and computer issues… it's hard for me to get time to upload my work from my iPod without the computer shutting down but if this is up, it cooperated long enough **

**Yeah… Nat was OOC hmm? Well it's years later, her life changed a lot and she just got proof that her brother's alive and has a family and she's just overjoyed okay?**

**BTW I realized when I gave them the last name Thorne I was thinking of Bella Thorne from Shake It Up and got it confused with Thorn from Halo/Hades… just in case any of you were keeping up with that.**


	9. Introductions and WWIII

**Yet another chapter! Huzzah!**

**Kay you know how I said I WASN'T doing another fic? Yeah… umm… *cough* I… well TECNICALLY I'm not but… I've been working on… you know lets just get to the dang story…**

**I own zip.**

**Hope's POV (I was gunna do Nat's but too emotional…)**

When Mrs. Thorne stopped hugging me I could see tears in her eyes and she was smiling like crazy.

"You're mother is Amy Cahill isn't she?" she asked. I nodded. "He was always so happy with her… I'm glad they stayed together. They say most teen marriages don't work out but I knew they weren't marrying just because of Grace… he'd been planning to propose for months! How old are you? Sixteen? Oh come upstairs, we have so much to talk about!" she rambled, partially to herself.

"Umm… okay? I'm fifteen by the way…" I said, uncertain about what the hell was going on. Did she say Grace? My sister Grace?

When we got upstairs we sat down in the living room and she drowned me in questions about my family, many about my dad.

"Tell me everything! Do you have any siblings?"

I was a little confused. Xavier and Alex had rattled off all these facts like they were spelling a simple word but their mother didn't know anything.

"Yes ma'am. Luke is ten, Grace is seventeen and Livi is fourteen." I supplied.

"Oh yes I remember Grace… she was so small… only a few weeks old… such a sweet child…" she muttered.

"You knew my sister?" I asked, shocked.

"Not very long, but yes… Ian was afraid to let me be around her too much… afraid I'd turn her into a mini-me." she laughed a bit at the memory.

"Umm… Mrs. Thorne?" I asked "How do you know my family?"

She looked at me. "Hope, honey, I am your family. You dad is my older brother."

"So you're my aunt…" I said, processing this information. I didn't know my dad had a sister… Wait… did that mean Xavier and Alex were my cousins? _No, Xavier is my cousin _I thought, _Alex is my… step-cousin? He's not related to Mrs. Thorne..._

"It seems so. I'm just so glad that your family turned out well… every night I wonder about them. Did your parents' marriage last? Did Grace do well in school? Were any of them still alive even? I was too afraid to look in the files…" she explained.

"Well as far as I know they're all okay. I haven't seen them in days though." I explained.

"Well why not? What happened?"

"It's kind of a long story…" I said.

"I can't believe you set my dad's clothes on fire _again_." I heard a voice say and the door slamming.

"He shouldn't have been standing so close to the house _again_!" Xavier replied.

"You don't set a man on fire _twice _on accident." Alex said.

Three boys came I, one I'd never seen before. Alex and Xavier saw me sitting there their eyes looked like they were going to fall out of their heads and they dropped their gym bags to the floor. The other boy just looked back and forth between them and me, confused.

Alex was the first to recover. "Natalie… who's this?" he asked, as if he'd never met me before. If I hadn't known better I would have believed it too.

Natalie rolled her eyes. "I found out what you two have been doing in the basement. And before you ask I did notice you sneaking around. Now, come sit down, boys." they obeyed.

"What are you going to do to her?" Xavier asked.

"She won't hurt her, Xavier. No doubt she knows who Hope is and if I know Natalie, she won't touch her beloved brother's daughter." Alex said, but I sensed more hopefulness in his voice rather than sureness.

"What is going on?" the new guy asked.

Natalie ignored him. "You knew this? And you didn't tell me?" she stood up and glared at them, suddenly angry.

"We knew you would tell dad." Xavier said "Dad would hurt her."

Natalie calmed herself down. "Why do you have her here?"

Alex looked at Xavier then at me. This was going to be interesting.

**Grace's POV**

"Thirty bucks you don't snitch." I told Luke.

"Fifty." he demanded "Sixty and I'll give you your phone back too."

I sighed and counted out the money. This kid was going to kill my wallet…

"And what will you tell mom and dad when they ask where you got all that money, genius?"

"They don't need to know and you won't tell them because I have _so much _dirt on you." he smirked. Gosh, he is just so freaky when he does that…

Speaking of Hope, we still haven't found her. Everyone was panicking over it.

Everyone… but me. I knew she was okay. How did I know that? Well that would be the reason I just had to pay my brother.

As soon as I got the phone I started deleting the messages I hadn't got to before Luke stole it.

"You'd be in _so _much trouble." he told me.

I glared at him. He was wrong. I was doing the right thing. Or at least that's what I kept telling myself.

"Just go finish packing." I told him. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: Dan found the Vesper stronghold in London and we're all going there. _They're going to go start World War III. _I thought.

**Okay I just realized that this is going to be a REALLY long story… *****sigh*****… I'm just driving myself into a dead end but if I'm going to crash at the end anyway, may as well enjoy the ride there…**


End file.
